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This article comes from the official account of Wechat: SF Chinese (ID:kexuejiaodian), author: SF

In 2018, archaeologists excavated the Jirentai Goukou site 3600 to 3000 years ago (based on 1950, the same below) in Yili, Xinjiang, and found a large amount of coal ash, cinder, unburned coal blocks and coal pits. This discovery advances the history of human use of coal to 3000 years ago. Recently, a number of research institutions at home and abroad have jointly released the results of various studies on the coal remains unearthed at the site.

Wen Jing | Wen Jing

Coal has been providing power for human civilization for a long time. Coal is a solid combustible mineral gradually formed by complex biochemical and physical and chemical changes of ancient plants buried in the ground, which contributed to the occurrence of the Industrial Revolution. It is known as "black gold" and "food for industry".

The use of fire is of epoch-making significance in the history of human civilization. Human beings use fire to make primitive pottery, burn lime, smelt metal, etc., so that tools can be better made and used.

Before coal was discovered, firewood was the main material used to make a fire. The calorific value of coal is 2.33 times that of wood, the specific gravity is 3 times that of wood, and the burning temperature of coal is much higher than that of wood (1700-1900 ℃ for coal and 700-1000 ℃ for wood). It can be said that the transition of the main fuel used by mankind from firewood to coal is a leap forward in the history of human civilization.

The first large-scale use of coal by human beings was 3600 years ago, and the history of systematic coal fuel mining can be traced back to the late third millennium (that is, 2500 to 2000 years ago). Although sporadic burning of coal as fuel has been reported in some prehistoric archaeological sites, there is still a lack of evidence that coal was systematically mined as fuel 2500 years ago.

In 2018, archaeologists excavated the 3600-3000-year-old Jirentai Goukou site in Yili, Xinjiang, and found a large number of coal ash, cinder, unburned coal blocks and coal pits. This discovery advances the history of human use of coal to 3000 years ago.

Recently, the environmental archaeology team of Lanzhou University, together with the Institute of Cultural relics and Archaeology of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous region, Renmin University of China, as well as a number of research institutions at home and abroad, published in the academic journal "Scientific Progress" (Science Advances), the results of various studies on the coal remains unearthed from the Jirentai Goukou site.

The drought event 4200 years ago was a global climate deterioration between the middle and late Holocene and was considered to be the driving factor for the decline of some ancient civilizations. This event is reflected in some sediment records in Central Asia. As a result, scientists speculate that the deterioration of the climate may have led to the decline and disruption of human activities in the upper reaches of the Yili River between 4200 and 3800 years ago.

The results of radiocarbon dating of charcoal, human bones and animal bones at the Jirentai Goukou site show that in the early stage (about 4500 to 4300 years ago), the main source of local fuel was firewood, while in the later stage (about 3600 to 2900 years ago), the site has a complete record of coal mining and use.

In addition, the early charcoal remains showed that conifers, shrubs and broad-leaved trees accounted for 43.3%, 32.3% and 20.4% of the firewood sources, respectively, while in the later stage, broad-leaved trees dominated the firewood sources (94.2%). The proportions of conifers and shrubs were only 4.0% and 1.8%, respectively. Conifers have low hardness and high combustion heat, so they are high quality firewood. The illogical act of giving up high-quality firewood is probably a choice that human beings have to make at a time when the climate is deteriorating.

Fortunately, humans have found another better fuel.

The development of human civilization has broken through the limitation of energy. From about 3800 years ago, the bronze civilization Andronovo culture expanded rapidly in the Eurasian grasslands, bringing a more complex mode of life and production to the northwest Xinjiang where the Jirentai Goukou site is located, promoting the expansion of the local community scale and the complexity of the social structure, as well as increasing the demand for fuel energy.

Under the superposition effect of the reduction of wood resource supply caused by the deterioration of climate and environment, the contradiction between society and environment intensifies, which finally promotes the local people to break the original tradition of resource utilization and develop alternative fuel energy-coal.

Scientists discovered the latest outcrop of coal seams about 3 to 4 kilometers from the site. Considering that it takes a lot of labor to transport a large amount of coal over long distances and is very inconvenient, these coal seams are the most reasonable source of coal for the site. Further coal quality identification results show that the coal in the site is likely to come from three of the six surrounding coal seam outcrops.

The test results also show that the coal samples in the site and nearby coal seams all belong to bituminous coal, and their quality is better than that of common lignite. This suggests that people at that time may have consciously chosen higher-quality coal.

The new research advances the history of human systematic development of coal fuel by about 1000 years, and makes Xinjiang, China, the earliest known region in the world to systematically develop and utilize coal fuel, which is of great significance for understanding the interaction between prehistoric man and the environment.

If the people near the Jirentai Goukou site have found a way out, will there be a tragedy that lack of energy will lead to the decline of civilization in the long history of human civilization? These histories have been eroded by time, and it is difficult for us to see the whole picture, thinking that those civilizations have sprung up suddenly, or have eerily disappeared. These puzzles need to be further explored by scientists.

References:

Earliest systematic coal exploitation for fuel extended to ~ 3600 B.P. | Science Advances

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